Cafe Blue

Cool little spot that is attached to Jerk restaurant. The smell of the food coming out of that place was amazing. The area to sit in on the coffee side is too small and confining so we sat at window seats on the restaurant side. Coffee was good. Almond milk… yep, they have that.

Any café that uses half wit beans is a win. Tried a cup of drip coffee, an Ethiopian blend, and it was pretty great. I prefer coffee with more complexity, so I enjoyed this spot. Friendly people. I’ll have to come back to try the restaurant.

I’m staying with a friend that lives in the area and needed to get some work done so I headed over to Café Blue.
It’s attached to Jerk, Jamaican style food, which also looks great, I’ll have to try them!
Back on point, the staff is very friendly and this is the perfect spot to bring your laptop and have an amazing Carmel latte, seriously the best latte I’ve ever had in Chicago.
I also order a chocolate scone, but it was sugar overkill and I couldn’t finish it. But still delicious.
I’ll definitely come back and totally recommend if you’re in the area.

This coffee shop is my spot!
Do I work in the building? Yes.
Have I come here on my day off? Yes.
Do you need at least two dollars and some change for a cup of coffee? Yes… welcome to the world of quality beverages.
Since they have opened I feel a personal connection with every member of the staff here.
They ask me about my day and I ask them about theirs.
Their espresso is on point and the iced coffee is great.
The pastry selection is small, but the items are always quality.
I recently tried the new guava butter on toast and have already gone back twice for it.

I work in the building and only go here if I am running late and can’t stop somewhere else because it is not the best… Staff is nice and its a cute shop, but coffee is way too over priced (although I have heard rumors they lowered their prices).
Salted Caramel Mocha is awesome but DO NOT GET THE PSL! The PSL tastes like old lunch meat and leaves a gross taste in your mouth, if they could change the PSL I would go back.

I work in the building, and usually bring my own coffee or stop in route to Starbucks because the prices and size of the coffee is beyond a RIP OFF! They only offer 1 size coffee… a tiny coffee cup.
I decided to give them a second chance after the owner made an effort to reach out to individuals in the building saying he reviewed complaints and made adjustments to the price. The small (only size cup) coffee is still more expensive than a Starbucks venti coffee AND the kicker, I brought my own tervis cup, not creating more trash for the planet and saving them the cost of using a cup. At Starbucks, if you bring your own cup it is cheaper– promoting reducing our carbon footprint. However, at Café Blue they will charge you the exact same amount AND refuse to fill your coffee higher than what their cups fill, despite not wasting or using the cost of a cup they wouldn’t give a little more coffee or comp the price for bringing my own cup. In asking about this, the woman at the register told me their coffee beans are much more expensive than Starbucks and the cups are basically of no cost. These magic beans do not taste too magical. I still prefer Starbucks any day of the week!
Nice to see that Café Blue is not environmentally conscious and do not value their neighbors in the building… When Love’s café was here, everyone in the building ate breakfast, got their coffee, and had lunch there. Value your customers, don’t rip them off.
PS– Today is National Coffee day too, you think you could be generous to fill up my Tervis cup a bit more for a paying customer!!!

I work in right next door to Café Blue. It is a great place for an afternoon pick-​me-​up. Their coffee selection is pretty limited, but good overall (a bit bitter, but not bad at all). I usually go in the afternoons, so there really is no wait. I haven’t tried their iced beverages, but it is on my to-​do list.

The café is consistently quality stuff. I’m more of a fan of the hot bevarages over the iced — the iced ones seem to lose the impact of the bean even with their filtron coffee press. It’s filmy and leaves an odd aftertaste. But their espresso and americanos? Fantastic.
The staff generally is nice, not the fastest but earnest. If I see 2 – 3 people in line, I tend to skip it in the morning as they never staff more than one person it seems, even for the AM rush.
My only 2 real critiques — they charge for simple syrup — I don’t any other that does that. $.30 of sugar placed in hot water and you have to charge so much for it? Your sugar packets left on the counter cost more than that per serving. And lastly, they’ve made mistakes with my order, and when told there was a misstep, they like to make sure you messed up the order not them. Again, not bad qualms, just something to keep in mind.

I work in an office right next door to Café Blue. It could not be a better location for an office full of snobbish 20-​somethings to indulge in some good coffee during their breaks. Here’s the thing that should be scaring Café Blue. NONE OF US GO THERE. Look, the coffee is pretty good. I’d even say it’s better than average, but it’s so outrageously expensive that even a bunch of hip kids can’t get behind it. I’ve been on a iced coffee/​cold brew kick the last several weeks and for my $ 2.50, Dunkin’ Donuts has a decent, large cup of iced coffee that I’m more than happy to make a walk down Chicago Ave for. But today, I figured I’d stick close to the office and get a cup from Café Blue. Here’s what I learned: if you want cold brew from Café Blue, you’re going to pay over $ 4 for 16 ounces.
Now, Dunkin’s coffee isn’t as high-​quality and they probably don’t actually cold-​brew the coffee, so let’s throw that example out. If you wanted a 16 oz cup of cold brew here in Chicago, you could go to Intelligentsia (nectar of the Gods) and get one for $ 3.75. Okay, comparable price. How about Starbucks? $ 3.25 for their new cold brew.
And again, the coffee is pretty damn good! I have no qualms with the quality of the product here, just the price of it. I thought it was just my small-​town mentality, but speaking with the natives in my office, nobody thinks this brew is worth the price-​tag. I know that a proper cold-​brew isn’t cheap, but I think in this case, Café Blue is missing out on a lot of business. The story here is that quality comes at a price, and it comes over quantity. The same could be said for its counterpart restaurant next door, «Jerk.» It’s good, but is it worth it? No. No it isn’t.
UPDATE: I’ve been in touch with the owner of Café Blue and Jerk, and he’s informed me that they’ve reviewed their menu prices and have made significant changes across the board. Including lowering the price of cold brew coffee to $ 3.25, which I consider a fair price. This is a huge step in the right direction for the gang at Café Blue and Jerk!

I love this tiny little coffee shop. Kind of hard to find the entrance from the street, but the espresso drinks are really well prepared and the staff is incredibly friendly. I’d give it five stars if they had other flavored syrups besides vanilla!

Being a huge fan of Jerk’s food, I tried out their café next door. Their coffee is amazing, the staff is really friendly, and the pastries are to die for! The island vibes are also an awesome perk, the esthetics are on point. There’s an area to work right by the café as well that’s sectioned off from the Jerk restaurant, they have free wi-​fi so it’s a great spot to work from. There’s plenty of space and it’s right by huge windows so lots of natural sunlight. It’s now one of my go-​to spots to eat and/​or work — awesome lunch at Jerk followed by a perfect cup of coffee.

Great café! Coffee is on point and the staff is super friendly. I’m here almost every day. It’s not a place I would really sit and hang out at but it is a place I will grab a good coffee from!
Cold brew can be purchased in a bottle. Vanilla is made in house. They have an amazing machine that lets you froth almond milk (as I can’t have dairy).
I love this place! It’s a hidden GEM on Halsted.

This coffee BLOWWWS MONKEY ASS. These must all be employees underneath me, because there is no way anyone would say this about the place. First, prices are outrageous. 5 dollars for a DONUT!!! What is wrong with you people. When did that become reasonable. I could travel out to Indiana, gather up a couple wheat stacks, drive all the way back to chicago and create my own donut for less than 5 dollars. HA HA! Barista my ass. This coffee is terrible. So bitter. Second, why in the world is an iced coffee 2 dollars more than a regular coffee. Are they magical ice cubes? I think not. If they were I’d have a girlfriend by now. This place is terrible. Dunkin Donuts please run this café out of business for everyone that works in the buildings sake.

2.5−3 stars.
I work in the building that Café Blue is in and we were SUPER excited to finally get a coffee place in the building since the nearest coffee is Dunkin Donuts about 10 mins away.
Here are the cons:
1. Ridiculous prices– Small Iced Coffee is around $ 4.15 compared to $ 2 at Starbucks and $.99 at DD from 3−6PM
2. The coffee is pretty bitter and nothing special for the price. That being said, the coffee has a TON of caffeine that gets us through the 2PM afternoon slump.
3. They have very few food options: 2 croissants, a cookie, donuts, and muffins. If you ask them to heat up the croissant they can’t because none of the food is made there. It’s just delivered and put in the case.
Their pros are the convenience of location for people who work in the area along with the customer service. Everyone that works there is very friendly.
Café Blue has some great potential but really needs to step up their game on their pricing and menu offerings!

Last time at Jerk, I’d managed to polish off my entire platter of Jerk meats and sides, plus extras. Instead of the usual feelings of dread, shamefulness or disgust after consuming said large quantities of food, I took my accomplished self down the hall to Café Blue. Gotta rest and jumpstart the digest[ion]!
It’s a small, cozy alcove framed with distressed blue shutters featuring Halfwit coffees and an assortment of pastries. My cappuccino was smooth, well-​made and STRONG. Just what I desperately needed. I only wish this place had longer hours on weekends because I’d totally walk over for some caffeination and some light work.

This café is everything! Three things I highly expect when looking for a coffee shop:
1. Friendly Staff
2. Quality of Product
3. Atmosphere/​Experience
Café Blue provided me with a world class experience in all three of these categories. To start, after coming in just once, the staff remembered my name and seemed so happy to see me. When I came in, Abby and Victoria were working. They were incredibly sweet, served me well, and seemed to be a great team. I ordered a red-​eye (which is a coffee with a shot of espresso in it). It was amazing! I’ve been drinking coffee for 13 years and used to be a barista myself, so I know a good coffee or a crap coffee when I taste it, and this coffee was amazing. The price is super reasonable as well. Lastly, the atmosphere of this place is awesome. If you want a comfortable café with island vibes and amazing food option (Jerk Chicken) attached to it, this place is FOR YOU! Also, parking is always a dealbreaker for me, but I was so happy to discover that there is plenty of parking around the café, and they even have space in the parking lot across the street.
FIVE STARS FOR CAFE BLUE. You must try it out, you will not be disappointed!!!

Average coffee in a surprisingly inconvenient location.
Now that Café Blue has finally opened after a year long build out, I was excited for a new morning coffee option on the drive to work. The regular coffee comes in one size small/​medium for $ 2.50, and though it is done by local roaster Halfwit it was pretty generic. I guess I had hoped for something more exotic or island-​y or… Jamaican? I would expect that any Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee would be tastier and more thematic.
To round out the order I got an English Breakfast tea and a pastry. For the tea I was given a cup of warm water and a point to the boxes of tea bags on the counter. As for the pastry, when I asked where they were from I was told «the La Boulange.» I wasn’t sure if the fellow meant «the the bakery,» «the the starbucks,» or if he really meant «the La Boulangerie,» but wherever they come from it was a tasty (albeit $ 4) chocolate croissant.
Unfortunately as there is no parking on Chicago or Halsted, and no space (or even loading zones) on Green or Superior, I imagine this will end up serving mostly people who already live in the handful of residential buildings at that corner. According to their website there is parking available… somewhere, however as of this morning it wasn’t marked nor posted in the store.

It’s finally open!!!
This café inside of Jerk’s brand new storefront has been a long time coming. The sign has been on the front of the building for literally almost 9 months, and although I was a little underwhelmed at it’s offerings, the coffee and croissant were very spot on.
They only have java and a few pastries, but it’s a nice little add on after a plate of Caribbean food for lunch. If you work in the building you’re gonna be stoked at a new option at your doorstep.